Angianthus from the Greek 'angeion' meaning a vessel or cup and 'anthos' meaning flower, referring to the cup formed by the pappus scales in Angianthuis tomentosus. Preissianus named after Johann August Ludwig Preiss (1811 - 1883), botanist and plant collector in Western Australia.

Distribution:

Found across the southern part of South Australia in coastal or near-coastal situations, growing on saline, usually sandy soils in a variety of coastal habitats including the edges of salt marshes. Also found in Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.

Status:

Native. Common in South Australia. Common in the other states.

Plant description:

Annual herb to 8 cm high with several stems arising from the base, either prostrate or erect to 16 cm long. Leaves opposite and alternate; herbaceous to semi-succulent; narrowly elliptical to linear and subterete to 10 mm long and 2 mm wide; densely cobwebby. Flower-heads subglobular to 8 mm diameter with yellow ray-less daisy flowers. Flowering between September and December.

Fruit type:

Small dense, dry daisy-heads.

Seed type:

Dark brown, pyramid-shaped achenes to 0.8 mm long, with no pappus.

Embryo type:

Spathulate; fully developed.

Seed collecting:

Collect heads that are hard, drying off and turning pale brown.

Seed cleaning:

Place the heads in a tray for a week to dry. Then rub the heads gently with your hands to dislodge the seeds. Be carefully as the seeds are very small. Viable seeds will be dark and hard. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place.

Seed viability:

From one collection, the seed viability was high, at 100%.

Seed germination:

Seeds are non-dormant, viable seed should germinate readily.

Seeds stored:

Location

No. of seeds(weight grams)

Numberof plants

Datecollected

Collection numberCollection location

Datestored

% Viability

Storagetemperature

BGA

30000 (1.1 g)

17-Jan-2007

DJD749Yorke Peninsula

1-Aug-2007

100%

-18°C

Location: BGA — the seeds are stored at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, MSB — the seeds are stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Kew, England.Number of plants: This is the number of plants from which the seeds were collected.Collection location: The Herbarium of South Australia's region name.% Viability: Percentage of filled healthy seeds determined by a cut test or x-ray.